PlayStation 4 Cracked by Hacking Group fail0verflow

Well, that didn’t take long. At the 32nd annual Chaos Communication Congress, hacking group fail0verflow showed off the first publicly known Linux hack of the PlayStation 4 console. This comes only 2 years after the launch of the console and is half the amount of time that it took until George Hotz (geohot) was able to discover the first security exploits in the PS3 in 2010, 4 years after the launch of the console. During the panel, the exploit was shown in the PlayStation 4’s web browser where a Linux kernel was partitioned as part of a separate operating system on the console. In a blog post, fail0verflow explains why it has not released a guide nor the kernel used to hack the system, but based on their past work with the PS3, one will more than likely be released in the near future.

Sony has not responded to this hack mainly due to it requiring the PlayStation 4 to be on firmware 1.76 and the current firmware is on version 3.11. Also, adding to the difficulty of this, is the PlayStation 4 runs on a fully closed system to prevent such hacks. However, with past hacks by hackers, such as geohot and Dark_AleX’s work on Sony’s original PSP, they have found ways around this by reversing updates to an earlier version and then using the hack tools to crack the systems.

George Hotz AKA geohot was the first to hack the PS3

If plays out like the last time, with the PS3, Sony’s response will likely be to bring the main hackers of fail0verflow to court and sue them for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, computer fraud and copyright infringement. Sony also demanded that websites such as Google and YouTube surrender the IP addresses of anyone that had either visited geohot’s website or viewed any video on how to use his exploits. This was more to show the courts the extent of how many people were using the hack but also brought on the attention of Anonymous who threatened to attack Sony’s websites. They claimed they were doing this in response to the information collecting Sony was doing and later in 2011 when the PlayStation Network was hacked, denied all involvement with the attack.

So guys, any homebrewers in the crowd? Does this look like a Linux kernel worth running or something not worth the effort? Let us know in the comments below.